Dead Guy Ale | Rogue Ales

Notes / Commercial Description:
An ale inspired by the style of a German Maibock, brewed using our proprietary Pacman yeast, Dead Guy Ale is deep honey in color with a malty aroma, rich hearty flavor and a well balanced finish.

Reviews by jesseejames:

I really did not like this beer way too nasty and bitter. It has a poor head and for a bock beer it really lacked any malt taste. I thought that it was over hopped. All in all I just did not like the taste of this beer. It has a cidery taste that is disgusting to me. If all they did was use sugar to built up the alcohol they were wasting the effort.

Appearance 3, Aroma 3.75, Flavor 3.75, Palate 3.5, Overall 3.5. Final weighted score: 3.6375
While the head is attractive, the lacing (meh) and the color/clarity of the ale leave a lot to be desired. The aroma is very tempting and the flavor does not miss expectations. The palate is pretty good. Overall, this is a reliable ale – good but not outstanding.

With the new Maibock tasting thread scheduled, and all of the inevitable discussion about Dead Guy and the debate over its style niche, I went on the hunt for some DG -- and almost failed to find some, but Rogue's BeerFinder helped out.

I drank this stuff a lot back in the early days of the Micro Boom®, but I've never reviewed it. With my enthusiasm for German-style beers, I could never understand why Rogue called this a Maibock. These days I see they're just calling it an Ale "inspired" by Maibocks, not sure how to rate it, but I'll follow BA's listing.

12 ounce bottle poured into my short Becher glass. No bottle dating to be found. 6.8% ABV now listed on the label.

L -- Clear, deep amber color with a dense and creamy, cream-colored head that holds up well.

F -- Mouthfeel is slick and syrupy with a dry, almost astringent finish and medium to light-robust body.

O -- This beer is reminiscent of a Maibock in color only. The strong hoppy bitterness, caramel malt character, and fruit esters are more akin to an American take on a Strong Bitter -- and not a terribly bad one at that, but stand this up to a Hofbräu Maibock (probably the most robust Maibock available) and the contrasts would be glaringly obvious. Re-categorize this as a Strong Bitter -- or better, an American Amber Ale and I'll alter my scores.

Appearance - Dark, cloudy orange in the body with a good head that lingered but didn't lace.

Smell - Nice, mild, malt character with a stiff balancing hop (strange for the style but not for Rouge). There's a light melon/orange fruitiness to this aroma as well, making it quite nice.

Taste - Ist das eine HopBock? The lightly-toasted malt flavors complimented by sweet orange and grapefruit and honey are offset by stiff, bitter hops. I doubt if you'll find anything like this in Germany, but it is good nevertheless.

Mouthfeel - Medium-bodied with light carbonation and very refreshing thanks to the uncharacteristic hops.

Drinkability - You have to love Rogue or hate 'em. They make one of the hoppiest Stouts on the planet, and they do the same with this Maibock. I happen to enjoy the interpretation of the style, but many I'm sure won't.

Update - I can't remember the first time I had this ale, but I first rated it on the site in November 2003. I thought it would be fun to sit down with pad and pen (or keyboard and mouse as the case may be) and write an update.

It hasn't changed a bit. Beautiful body with a nice head that doesn't lace, nice malts with an off-style PacNW hoppy bite, solid medium-bodied with very pleasant carbonation, and the bottle empties before you can say, "Gibst mir einmal, bitte."

Update - I happened upon this again in 2010 and found it to be much more malty. The malt base is unsweetened and very raw. I think really it needed this to balance the big hop bit. It's almost like unsweetened caramel if that's not an oxymoron. It's a solid 4 all the way around and a definite "must try" for any beer enthusiast.

Nice rich gold color with creamy head that stayed nicely,smelled nice and malty with some fruitiness to it.Nice balanced brew not overly sweet but enjoyably sweet,hop is in there after a few sips it shows.Drink this one alot really good beer with some balls.

This would be a great beer to have with food as it is relatively mild in flavor intensity. The beer poured a nice orange/amber with little head. It had a refreshing smell of fruits like apricot and citrus but with faint smells of malt. This was a good casual beer to have, my only suggestion would be to intensify the flavor a bit as I found it to be a bit too mild.

On tap at Old Chicago. Pours a deep amber, almost brown color with a tiny head that only left behind very small traces of lacing. The nose is full of a nice mix of hops, malts, a bit of sweetness, and a touch of woody/nutty undertones. The beer is fairly smooth and has a heavy malt character with a light toffee/caramel flavor and a bit of biscuit yeast that comes alone. Some very faint hop presence can be detected, but only if you're really looking for it. Medium body and medium carbonation with a nice, malt flavored finish.

Decent beer, here. Nothing too special or over-the-top excellent, but still tasty and very easy to drink.

A - Poured into pint glass, 1.5-finger cream-colored head crawled down the glass. Beer is an only slightly hazy amber color. Decent lacing

S - Has a very nice aroma, it's not unlike having a mouthful of the beer just by getting a good whiff of it. Has a sort of banana-nut bread vibe, really very pleasant. Gets a bit funky when swirled.

T - Not terribly complex, starts with a generous amount of malt, and has a good hop bite at the end but isn't overpowering. Doesn't really push any new boundaries but instead offers simple quality.

M - Good carbonation, aftertaste is slightly bitter and lingers for upwards of 30 seconds. Starts off quite tight but opens up quickly. Alcohol aftertaste becomes more evident with warming. Overall goes down light and easy.

D - Very drinkable beer, especially if one is trying to escape macro hell and find some quaffable craft brews. Quite filling considering the mouthfeel. I wouldn't turn this one down, but I don't think I could make it through more than one or two either.